Bright Futures
by Carlough
Summary: One shot. Continuation of Dark Pasts. The Autobots and Decepticons meet to see if they can't come to a peace agreement. With them comes Bee's old dead Decepticon friend Echo. Except he's not so dead anymore...


**One shot. You need to know Dark Pasts to understand this. This story was requested by _Loveless247_, who wanted more Echo-Bee interaction, and the idea is from **_**Hiding in My Writing**_**. This is some Echo fun after DP. My inspiration for some of Echo's insanity and quirks is the awesome Marvel comics character Deadpool, who I love very much. Hope you all like this!**

**Disclaimer:**** I don't own Transformers or its characters, but I do own Echo, Silverstrike, and anyone else you don't recognize, including the glowy thing. I don't own the Discovery Channel.**

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Bumblebee sat on a bench in front of the Autobots' new meeting room, swinging his pedes back and forth in boredom. Optimus Prime was making another of his futile bids for peace and the Decepticons were coming for a "visit." He was deemed too young to be in the meeting room, which was full of officers and some of the older soldiers, so he was stuck waiting outside while Optimus spoke with the first wave of Decepticons; apparently a second group would join the first later, after Megatron had deemed it safe for them to approach.

The new meeting room was located in the back rooms of the _Ark_, the old rooms that were originally used by the _Ark_'s first crew. They had been so neglected for so long, used as storage for things that nobody ever wanted to see again when they had previously been full of life. The rooms would still be that way, would never have been emptied and renovated into new quarters, offices, and recreational space including a shooting range and a training room with high enough ceilings for the fliers to practice indoors on rainy days, had it not been for a little problem the Autobots had experienced a few months ago.

That particular problem went by the name of Echo, a cheeky, slightly insane Decepticon youngling that, oh yeah, also happened to be dead.

_Echo..._ Bumblebee released air from his vents loudly. He missed his friend, with his wild laughter and penchant for rambling. The Decepticon was at peace now, and Bee tried to settle with that. He was no longer being tortured by the _Ark_'s old commander, Silverstrike, who had also moved on to Primus-knew-where.

That made Bee giggle. Primus _would_ know where, of course. He recalled fondly his meeting with the actual Cybertronian god. Primus was interesting, to say the least.

Bee looked at the meeting room door again, hoping somebody would pop out and say, "Hey, we decided you aren't too young to be here, come on in!"

It wasn't like he hadn't been in there before. Pit, he was there before the rest of them! Then again, so was Echo.

The new meeting room would always be just that to him, "Echo's Room." In honor of the Decepticon who had helped to rid the _Ark_ of the evil ghost of the mech who had murdered him, Prime had turned the room where Echo and his body had been trapped for so long into a meeting room, so Echo's Room would never be as cold and lonely as it had been for poor Echo, alone with nobody to even watch from the Between.

In a sort of memorial, Optimus had asked that the scrapes Echo had left in the ceiling and floor, as well as the pit where his body had been hidden, remain through the renovation and refurbishments. This had greatly confused Grapple and Hoist, the heads of the project, but they complied when they saw that Echo had signed the note on the ceiling. All they knew of him was what they had learned when his corpse was returned to the Decepticons – they had no clue about the supernatural aspect of it all. They frankly didn't want to know how he left a note on the ceiling when he was dead.

The etchings in the floor were in a corner, so most didn't notice them, and the compartment where Echo's body had been kept had a cover placed over it, as well as Echo's old crate (a piece of "furniture" that confused those who weren't "in the know" about Echo), so most didn't even know it was there, but it still existed. Bumblebee himself had placed some pressed flowers there in honor of his friend and their short-lived friendship. The two hadn't had much time to get to know each other, and yet they had so quickly become friends. Maybe that was why it bothered him that Echo was gone.

It didn't really hurt, per se. No, it felt more like when a friend went away for a trip and doesn't come back for a while. You miss them, but it isn't like they're gone forever. But Echo _was_ gone forever. Or at least he was supposed to be.

Shouts came from the room. No doubt the Decepticons disagreed with one of Prime's ideas for a treaty. That was another reason Bee wasn't allowed inside: "Things could get messy in there," Jazz had said. Apparently things had gotten violent in earlier such meetings for peace. There had been many, and yet a lot of the Autobots had good feelings about this one. As they all said, it just felt right this time, like something had changed.

Something had changed. Echo, the true catalyst to the start of the war, had been returned to the Decepticons. Maybe now they could "bury the hatchet" as the humans would say, and work towards a common goal.

Things calmed down in the meeting room, but shouts came from down the hallway. Bumblebee turned to see Trailbreaker, Cliffjumper, and Hound trying to herd a group of mechs down the hall. After all, not all of the Autobots and Decepticons would have been in the room, though it was quite big. For the time, most of the soldiers were stuck hanging around the rec room or clamoring for a shift in the security hub so they could watch the proceedings over the cameras. It seemed, though, that the trio had been assigned to escort, or rather attempt to escort, the second batch of 'Cons to the meeting room.

Bee stood as the group ventured closer, loud and boisterous and rowdy. Considering the first wave had only consisted of Megatron, Starscream, and Soundwave, Bumblebee should have expected a lot of mechs to be coming later. Still, he was surprised at how large the group was, not just in size, but in energy. They seemed to fill the area with their joking attitudes and laughter. It was something Bee never would have noticed about a group of 'Cons before he met Echo, but now he was noticing a lot of things about them.

How Soundwave and his cassettes were like a family rather than a master and his minions. How the gestalts may have wrestled and fought with each other, but it was no worse than the twins interacting; they were all just brothers who deep down cared for each other – even the Stunticons seemed to love each other, in a weird, twisted, slightly psychotic way.

He noticed how certain couples must have been bonded due to how the held themselves, the looks they sent each other. He saw how Starscream was always looking out for his trine in battle, and how Megatron _did_ give a slag about his soldiers.

Like Echo had told him the last time they had met, the factions weren't that different. They were all like big, dysfunctional families – really, really dysfunctional families.

The group was coming up to the room now. He could see the Constructions towards the front with Blackout, Barricade, and Thundercracker, while Skywarp walked behind him, speaking animatedly with Rumble, Frenzy, and some of the triple changers. Bee noticed Astrotrain in particular. He always did, after finding out that the other had been Echo's best friend before he died.

"Hey Bee," greeted Hound. "You might want to step back."

"Or get stepped on," crowed Rumble, snickering. "Those triple changers are always smacking into us little guys."

"Or rather, kicking us into walls," added Frenzy. This made the twin cassettes laugh even more. "Ain't that right, Astrotrain?"

Almost as if to illustrate their point, a blur of red flew past as some poor mech was kicked up by one of the triple changers.

"Slag!" exclaimed Astrotrain, departing from the group to chase after the mech who had smacked into the wall inelegantly. "I'm so sorry!"

"Again?" asked Hook with narrowed optics. He would have to do the repairs, no doubt.

"'M fine!" shouted the red mech, who was indeed short. Astrotrain plucked him off the floor and placed him on his pedes, simultaneously checking him over for damage. "Get off me, you mother hen!"

Scrapper looked at the red mech. "Where did you learn that human term from?"

"Television. Me an' Scavy were watching the Discovery Channel and they said it in a commercial."

Wait... A short red Decepticon who was friends with Astrotrain, very comfortable with the Constructicons, and copied things from human television commercials? He only knew of one mech like that...

"Echo?" he asked softly, nervously, afraid to be wrong.

The red mech spun around. "Little Bee!" he exclaimed, racing over to the minibot and tackling him to the ground.

"You're alive!" said Bee in shock.

"Yeppers! After I talked to you, I showed up the next morning in my old body! And I wasn't all corpsy! And now I'm back!"

"Echo?" chorused the other Autobots present. "You mean the dead body we returned to the 'Cons?" asked Cliffjumper. Said 'Cons glared at him.

Echo was already on to the next subject, still talking as Astrotrain pulled him off of Bumblebee and helped the minibot up, saying, "I've heard a lot about you."

"Hey, we're in my rooms! Look AT, it's the place I spent the last few hundred vorns! I see you guys took my advice; good thing, too. This place was a slaghole. Hey, it's my room!"

To say that everyone other than Bee was confused was an understatement. Echo had been kept out of battle since his revival after he informed his superiors of an abridged version of his story. The Autobots were completely lost.

"That's the meeting room," Trailbreaker said. Echo did a double take.

"No shit? They made my old lil' A-22 into a meeting room? I'm touched!"

Astrotrain looked less than pleased with this. "This was the torture chamber."

"And it was my crappy little hellhole!" cheered Echo. He obviously hadn't completely healed mentally from his time in the Between.

The door of the room opened and Starscream peeked out. "Would you all quiet down and get in here?"

The Decepticons and their escorts entered the room, except for Echo and the cassettes, who were pushed back.

"What gives?" Frenzy whined. "Ravage and the others are all in there!"

"Yeah," agreed his brother. "Even Ratbat!"

"They're all in your creator's chassis and will actually stay there!" Starscream paused. "Actually..." He left before coming back to the doorway, shoving Ratbat into Frenzy's arms. "Take him."

The twins could only stare bewilderedly at each other. How had they been recruited for this?

"What about me?" complained Echo, actually stomping his pede.

"Mighty Megatron doesn't want you in there. You could guess why." Starscream actually looked sympathetic for the youngling's plight.

"But I'm not actually a youngling anymore! I'm only a little younger than AT! Stupid, non-aging corpsy body..."

"Sorry, Echo. I know that, you know that, but you'll never be able to convince Megatron of that." With that, the door was shut in the younglings' faces.

"Well, slag," swore Frenzy. He stared at Ratbat, who cooed up at him.

"What now?" asked Rumble, looking for anything entertaining to do before he started playing catch using Ratbat as the ball.

"Let's go exploring!" called out Echo. "I want to see if we can find my glowy thing. I'm sure I left it around here somewhere..."

"Glowy thing?" chorused the twins. Echo nodded.

"It was so cute. It came in handy, too."

Bee wondered how to break it to his friend that his "glowy thing" was probably just a byproduct of his abilities as a deceased mech in the Between. He decided to just let him have his fun. It was just too nice to have him back.

"And where would you have left it?"

"Hmm... Probably in my room."

"Which is now the meeting room," Frenzy said, releasing Ratbat so he could fly around their heads, twittering interestedly at Bumblebee before deciding to sit on his helm.

"Yep!"

"I feel an idea coming on," said Rumble. Bee froze, and not just because a robot bat was sitting on his helm.

"What do you mean?"

"Listen, we want to see what's happening in the meeting and Echo probably left his glowy thing in there. We can go through the vents and listen to the meeting, and Echo can check the room for his glowy thing."

Bee could only watch as Rumble jumped on the bench and quickly located a vent and pulled it open, helping Echo and his brother in.

Asked Bumblebee, "How do you know where the vents are?"

Frenzy shouted from the vent's entryway, "We do this all the time! It's totally safe. C'mon!"

The minibot decided to ignore the reference to the 'Cons sneaking in and allowed Rumble to give him a leg up into the vent, Ratbat attached to his helm the whole time. He reached a servo back to help up the cassette, who took it gratefully.

"Thanks," Rumble grunted as he pulled the grate back over the vent opening.

The group began crawling through the cramped ventilation system, allowing Echo to lead the way, as the twins had only seen blueprints for this section of the _Ark_ before. Before long they were above the room, peering through the grate located over the vent that happened to open right above the meeting table.

Echo searched the room as well as he could, but could only get a view of the table. His glowy thing was nowhere in sight.

"What do you propose we do Prime, hmm?" The voice obviously belonged to Megatron.

"If we just tried to settle our political differences, it would be easier to coexist." Prime, that was an easy one to guess.

"So what, are you going to just cave to our ideals?" Starscream, definitely, if the raspy tones meant anything.

Ratbat hopped forward and leaned over the grate, cooing in delight when he spotted Soundwave. The twins tried to silence him, but it was too late. The robotic little bat started jumping up and down excitedly.

While the room had been renovated, the ventilation system had not. It was old and parts were rusted and rickety. It was so fragile, in fact, that Ratbat's jumping created a crack in the vent. The group watched in horror as the crack spread, moving between their splayed hands and legs and circling around. Spider webs of cracks spun off of it. Before the group could move back, it was too late.

The bottom of the vent gave out; the group of small mechs went crashing to the table below them. All speech stopped as dust and particulates settled. Ratbat happily hopped over to Soundwave.

Echo didn't mind that he was lying spread-eagled on a meeting table. "Hey everybody!" he called; he then gasped when he saw the ceiling. "Aw, my message is still there! You really _do_ care!"

Everyone stared at the group, mainly the Autobots who knew Echo.

"You're dead!" exclaimed Prowl.

"Used to be," Echo corrected, hopping off the table and dragging Bee with him so he could coo over his etchings and crate. Prowl fell offline as his logic circuits fried.

An odd glow filled the room, suddenly forming a weird little ball of light next to Echo. "Little Bee, look! My glowy thing is back!" The glow almost nuzzled the red mech like a pet would.

Echo pulled Bee to sit on the crate with him, and he sighed in contentment. "You guys need to end the war. I like it too much here. Something about being stuck here for vorns makes you love it."

Bee could only smile. It was good to have Echo back.

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**Well, there it is! Hope you liked it!**


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